New Iron Chef crowned at Saratoga Farmers Market

By LUCIAN McCARTY

Monday, October 8, 2012

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- The Spa City has a new Iron Chef.

Over the weekend, the fifth annual Iron Chef Challenge pitted two bitter rivals -- at least if you read into their last names -- against one another. Max London, chef at the Broadway restaurant of his namesake, defended his two-year title against challenger John Ireland, who leads the kitchen at Panza's Restaurant on Saratoga Lake.

The competition, based on the dramatic and highly competitive Japanese television show by the same name, was true to tradition. Both competitors were presented with a basket containing the day's mystery ingredients and given an hour to concoct a meal worthy of the judges' praise.

The mystery ingredients were lamb, fennel and Gar-La-La, a vegan ingredient Ireland described as "like a garlic, potato pudding." The chefs also were given $30 to buy whatever else they needed from the farmers market to bring out the flavors of the featured ingredients.

The rain and wind did not keep the crowd away, but it did make some of the cooking difficult.

"It made the water boil slower and the lamb not cook fast enough," Ireland said when the pans had cooled and the judges had ruled.

Still, he said the stove and Evo flat-top grill provided by Adirondack Appliance mitigated some of the issues.

Competition was heated. The judges' spokesman, Daniel Berman, a food writer for fussylittleblog.com and contributor to AllOverAlbany.com, said "only a couple of points separated the two of them."

Reigning Iron Chef London dished out a flatbread appetizer and served secret ingredient main courses of fennel and lamb with kale and ricotta gnocchi. He closed out his set with a fruit-filled crepe topped with crème fraiche for dessert.

Ireland, though, took the title with his three-course meal.

He started with a salad of tomato, cucumber, grilled eggplant, oregano, fennel fronds and Gar-La-La. The main course was lamb with braised kale, fish sauce-bacon jam and Brussels sprouts. The third dish was a dessert of butternut squash, braised in rice vinegar, pumpernickel, Serendipity goat cheese and plum. The judges praised it for not being too sweet.

Going into the competition, Ireland said he had a "baseline" for what he wanted the meals to look like, but the dishes were invented on the spot.

"You have to challenge yourself, so it was a good time," he said before heading from the outdoor Kitchen Stadium to his home turf at Panza's kitchen to cook up meals for the Saturday night crowd.